Circumpolar Climate Events Map, October 2012

Lugares de interés (POIs) del Mapa

0: Record breaking drought in BC (Canada)

Fort St. John, October 1 (drought)Residents in northeastern B.C. are being asked to conserve water as record-setting drought conditions hit the region.In Fort St. John, less than one millimetre of rain fell in September. The record set in 2006 was 15.4 mm; the monthly average for September is 45.7 mm of rain.

Since July, Fort St. John received only 45.9 mm of rain, breaking another record for the driest three-month period. The previous record, set in 1945, saw 55.9 mm of rain between July and September.

Residents are also on alert for wildfires in the area; danger ratings continue to be high or extreme. Read it all at the Ottawa Citizen.

The Canadian Environment

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1: Grass fires cause evacuations in Manitoba (Canada)

Vita Manitoba, October 3 (wildfire) People in the southeastern Manitoba town of Vita are waking up to a very different looking place and four familes no longer have a place to live.

Their houses burned down as grass fires raged through the area on Tuesday, also destroying a bridge on Highway 201 that led to two vehicles crashing through it.

Thick smoke drifting across the highway prevented drivers from seeing the bridge was out.

Firefighting crews rushed over to help the drivers, who were trapped. Once rescued, they were able to walk away without serious injuries.

The fires began Monday afternoon and were fueled by gusting winds and extremely dry conditions.

“The fire jumped mile roads and was billowing straight into town. There was no recourse to contain the fire at all, it was just a rolling fire," said Jim Swidersky, the area's reeve.

Read more CBC

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2: Rain result in miserable potatoe harvest (Sweden)

Alingsas Sweden, October 4 (agriculture, extreme rain) Half of Sweden's potato crop is still in the ground waiting for harvest due to the wet weather. Farmers have told Swedish news agency TT that it's the worst autumn for potato harvesting in years.

"Normally at this time of year we are in the final phase of the harvest, but we are a long way behind," Hans Karlsson, a potato farmer from the southern town of Alingsås, told TT.

The picture is almost the same throughout Sweden. In northernmost regions of Norrbotten and Västerbotten, 5-10 percent of potatoes are still in the ground while in the nearby regions of Västernorrland and Jämtland, that figure is 30 percent. In the rest of the country, half of the crop is still in the soil.

"I do not want to think about what will happen if it continues to rain," Ingemar Nilsson from the Agricultural Society in Skaraborg told TT.

The biggest danger of leaving potatoes in the ground for too long in such wet weather is that they will rot.

For more stories from Radio Sweden, click here

Eye on the Arctic

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3: Heavy rainfall and flooding (Finland)

Parainen, Finland, October 5 (extreme rain) Heavy downpours have caused water levels to rise in several parts of western Finland. Forecasters say over 50 millimetres of rain will fall within 24 hours. Already some 45 millimetres of rain has fallen in the municipality of Parainen in south west Finland on Friday. The Finnish Meteorological Institute has issued weather warnings for the areas of Satakunta and Ostrabothnia.

Floods have already been reported in parts of south western Finland. The area was deluged by around 50 millimetres of rain on Thursday and Friday. Some estimates put the amount of rainfall at 80 millimetres, according to Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment in south west Finland.

Officials say rivers and lakes could rise to at least normal spring flood levels. Low lying buildings in the municipality of Eura have already been flooded.

Floods earlier this week have also damaged crops in western Finland and northern Ostrabothnia.

Ule

October 8 - Flood Waters Receeding

Ule

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4: Two months of rain in three days (Finland)

Satakunta, Finland, October 8 (extreme rain) A low pressure centre that brought torrential rains and flooding to western parts of the country is weakening and moving eastward. Yle Meteorologist Toni Hellinen says that some areas received the equivalent of close to two months' rainfall over the weekend.

The hardest hit region was Satakunta, but exceptionally heavy rain was also seen in Pohjanmaa.

"Between Thursday evening and Sunday evening close to 100 millimetres of rain was registered. Judging from weather radar, it's possible that in some localities over 100 millemetres fell during these days, that's nearly two months' precipitation," says Hellinen.

The average monthly rainfall for October and November is around 60 millimetres.

However, Hellinen points out that the all-time record in Finland is around 200 millimetres during a single 24-hour period.

As the low pressure centre that brought weekend rains moves east, it is weakening and is not expected to bring more heavy downpours.

"As for rains, the situation is easing, but it should be remembered that there is a significant delay in the reaction of waterways to changes in the weather, so there are still places where flooding may continue," Toni Hellinen points out.

Yle

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5: Fairbanks gets soaked (Alaska)

Fairbanks, October 8 (extreme rain) A late-season rainstorm soaked Fairbanks on Sunday and Monday with one of the biggest rainfalls on record in October for Alaska’s second-largest city.

As of 3 p.m. Monday, approximately three-quarters of an inch of rain had fallen at Fairbanks International Airport since it began raining on Sunday afternoon.

While that’s not a record, it is an usually large amount of rain for so late in the autumn in Fairbanks, the National Weather Service said in a statement issued Monday afternoon.

It was the biggest, single, October rain event in Fairbanks since 1986, when 0.80 inches of rain fell on Oct. 10. The biggest October rainstorm in Fairbanks occurred in 1921. That year, 1.45 inches of rain fell Oct. 10-11.

The rainfall almost equaled October’s average precipitation total of 0.83 inches.

“Unseasonably wet,” is how meteorologist Rick Thoman at the National Weather Service in Fairbanks described conditions on Monday.

The rain was a result of a large high-pressure system in the Gulf of Alaska, Thoman said.

“We had subtropical moisture rotating around that high pressure in a nice, round, northwest flow,” he said. “It’s a picture-perfect way to get a big snowfall in Fairbanks.”

In fact, had it been colder the rain would have fallen in the form of snow, Thoman said.

“If this had been a month from now we’d have had a foot of snow,” he said.

There was snow falling at higher elevations above 1,500 feet but it wasn’t sticking because the ground was too wet and warm.

“Locally there have been some reports of wet splats of snow as low as 800 feet,” Thoman said.

Snow was sticking at elevations higher than 2,000 feet, he said. An automated gauge on Eagle Summit about 100 miles north of Fairbanks reported 5 inches of snow on Monday afternoon, Thoman said.

Cooler and drier conditions will prevail starting today and continuing through the week as a cold front moves into the Tanana Valley. Nighttime temperatures are expected to drop into the lower 20s tonight and they will fall into the teens beginning on Wednesday. No more rain or snow is in the forecast for the next several days.

“If we don’t get measurable snow in next few hours it’s going to be some days before we get some,” Thoman said about 4 p.m. Monday.

Contact the newsroom at 459-7572.

Read more: Fairbanks Daily News Miner

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6: Northern village cut off by flooding (Sweden)

Gagsmark Sweden, October 9 (extreme rain) The village of Gagsmark, outside Skellefteå in northern Sweden, is cut off from the world following floods caused by heavy rain.
Other areas in the province of Västerbotten are reporting major flooding problems.

The speed limit on the E4 highway in the area has been reduced to 30 kilometers an hour, and the two roads into Gagsmark are completely closed.

The water level there rose by one meter, but has reportedly now started to recede.

The traffic authorities say the flooding has reached its maximum, but they warn that roads may be undermined and eroded.

Eye on the Arctic

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7: Record snowfall in King Salmon (Alaska)

King Salmon, October 13 (snow record) A new daily snowfall record for October 13th was set at King Salmon Airport yesterday. 3.9 inches of snow fell... shattering the old record of 1.5 inches set in 1966. Weather Underground

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8: Unusual polar bear numbers (Canada)

Igloolik, NU, October 16 (sea mammals) Last week 14 bears were spotted near the hamletHamlet officials in the community of Igloolik, in Canada's eastern Arctic territory of Nunavut, are discussing a long-term plan for polar bears after an unusually high number have been spotted.

They met with the Hunters and Trappers Association, the Department of Environment and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on Friday to coordinate their response.

They now have a list of three experienced people on call to respond if an animal is spotted near the town.

Conservation Officer Jimmy Kennedy said regular patrols are also in effect by snowmobile, all-terrain vehicle and truck.

"Early in the morning, right at lunch, when everybody's returning after lunch, and then when the kids are being let out after school – there's good coverage of people patrolling the community to make sure there's no bears."

Last week, 14 bears were spotted near the hamlet. Four were killed and one was shot and wounded.

The hamlet's senior administrative officer, Brian Fleming, said they will be looking to communities like Arviat and Resolute Bay to help them come up with a long-term plan to manage problem bears.

"You know, there's always been polar bear problems and stuff in Igloolik and across Nunavut as a whole," Fleming said. "But this particular year we just have a lot of polar bears."

For more northern stories from CBC News, click here

Eye on the Arctic

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9: Conditions result in good whaling season (Alaska)

Barrow, October 17 (subsistence, sea mammal) After a relatively safe and successful fall whaling season most North Slope crews are nearly finished with whaling efforts, though some farther west communities will still go out. A total of 15 whales have been landed, and only one was lost after being struck.

A successful spring hunt in Barrow landed 14 bowhead whales and lost eight, which fulfilled their annual quota. Barrow crews still went out for fall whaling, however, after strikes were transferred to the larger community.

Two strikes were transferred from the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission bank, and four from Kivalina, which did not fill its quota in the spring.

"Barrow got their six and four more were transferred from Point Hope," said Johnny Aiken, executive director of the AEWC.

Of the four transferred from Point Hope, three have been landed and one remains, Aiken said.

In the middle of this week Barrow crews were waiting for some choppy marine conditions to subside before heading out to pursue that last strike.

"Point Hope didn't reach their quota last spring because of ice conditions, weather, that sort of thing," Aiken said. "And they don't really go fall whaling. They saved one in case they decided to go check it out."

Point Hope landed five whales this spring, not losing any. They had five remaining strikes.

If a community doesn't think it will be able to use up its strikes in the given year, they will often transfer them to another community. Muktuk is then often shared with the community who has given their strikes.

The AEWC has a total annual quota of 74 strikes.

By Hannah Heimbuch, Arctic Sounder
Read More: Alaska Dispatch

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10: Unusual bear activitiy in Kodiak (Alaska)

Kodiak, October 19 (land mammals) For Kodiak resident April Eads, last weekend was like living in a war zone. Eads addressed the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly last night during their regular meeting about the recent rise in bear activity around town.

Eads said she was curious how many hours the Kodiak Police Department spent chasing bears and not criminals last week and how many scared, trigger-happy residents are now arming themselves because of bears. She asked assembly members why Kodiak doesn’t have an ordinance enforcing proper garbage storage like Juneau or Anchorage, and said she was told police officers can’t write tickets to citizens who improperly store their garbage because without an ordinance it’s legal. In the end, Eads asked why, at the very least, the borough hasn’t upgraded to bear resistant roll cart containers like ones used in other cities across Alaska.
Rey Estrada is the residential truck driver for Alaska Waste and said the problem isn’t with the roll carts, but lack of initiative taken by residents.

KMXT

October 24, Kodiak Bear Shot While Raiding Chicken Coop - Chicken feathers were flying late Saturday night as Doug Pedersen took careful aim and with one shot brought down an 8-foot Kodiak bear raiding a chicken coop on Otmeloi Way.
"It just killed him stone dead," Pedersen said.
The bear is one of several that have been spotted roaming urban Kodiak since Oct. 1, rummaging through garbage dumpsters in one last eating binge before hibernation.
On Monday, two days after Pedersen's shot, Kodiak College issued a warning to students about bears on campus, and hikers at Fort Abercrombie State Historical Park reported spotting a bear on the beach.
Bear sightings are frequent in Kodiak, and especially in autumn, but Pedersen's incident is the first violent encounter between humans and bears during what has been an especially bear-ish fall.

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11: Kenai Peninsula altered by storms (Alaska)

Kenai Peninsula, October 21 (extreme rain, erosion) After 11 years living in the 2,000-square-foot, post-and-beam house Gary Stevenson built for himself and his wife, Grace, Stevenson woke up on a recent September morning anticipating the view he has enjoyed since they moved in: an unobstructed look at Cook Inlet, the distant string of mountains and, best of all, an eagle nest at the top of a cottonwood tree.

The tree's position on the tree- and alder-covered slope stretching between the couple's Anchor Point house and the beach below placed the nest even with the Stevensons' 70-feet of inlet-facing windows.

Storms hitting the peninsula last month had caused changes, however.

"I looked for my favorite eagle tree and the tree was gone," said Stevenson.

A portion of the bluff had sloughed off during the night, taking the cottonwood tree and nest with it.

"I drove down to the beach and looked at it from there and, holy mackerel, everything was gone. The tree was lying in the river."

While the hillside appeared undisturbed from the Stevensons' living room windows, the storms had reduced the lower half to "bare sandstone and a little bit of clay at the bottom."

With rain continuing to fall, Stevenson worried the upper half of the bluff, along with the house, would follow suit.

"We're sleeping in our camper at night if it rains," said Stevenson. "If it doesn't rain, we take a chance and sleep in the house. I'm just praying for cold weather and, if it freezes up, I think this place will stay until spring."

A few miles north, Kathy Kacher and a visitor got a hint of the storms' power.

"There was a rumble and my friend looked at me and said, 'Was that thunder?' I said I guess so, it was kind of a warm storm," said Kacher.

The next day, while Kacher was at work, her friend stopped to ensure rain was draining away from Kacher's home and discovered the source of the sound.

"He was standing there and heard the rumble again. He turned around and the bluff was going down the hill," said Kacher of an area that sloughed to within 12 feet of her two-story, 4,400-square-foot home.

What had once been a "nice bowl" with a heavily wooded, 45-degree slope and a boxed-in spring once used by homesteaders was reduced to "a sheer cliff. It's like a moonscape," said Kacher.

The Stevensons and Kacher were among 50 Anchor Point area residents at a Friday meeting with representatives from the Kenai Peninsula Borough Office of Emergency Management, the borough's road service area and the state of Alaska to discuss flood-related damage, response and recovery plans.

Scott Walden, OEM director, described the immensity of damage caused by typhoon-like weather in the Seward area and two back-to-back storms that struck the southern Kenai Peninsula. Seward suffered significant damage. Rains near Tyonek threatened roads and bridges. Nanwalek had landslides. Seldovia reported roads washed out. The Funny River area experienced flooding. An ice dam that appeared ready to burst threatened to raise the water level in Skilak Lake an additional four feet.

Walden said the cost to evaluate repairs needed for roads and bridges would cost a minimum of $1.1 million.

Read more: Homer Tribune

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12: Wounded brown bear on the run (Alaska)

Anchorage, October 24, 2012 (land mammals)

Anchorage police Wednesday morning were warning Hillside residents that a brown bear was shot and wounded after it raided a chicken coop in Alaska's largest city. It's the second time since Saturday a bear has been shot in an Alaska town for going after chickens.

The latest incident happened just after 2 a.m. Wednesday when police received a call that a Hillside resident had found a bear messing with his chicken coop and had shot it with a 12-gage shotgun.

Police arrived on the scene and started following a blood trail in the area of Floral and DeArmoun, according to Anchorage police spokesman Lt. Dave Parker. Police followed the bear with several K-9 units but lost the trail around 4:20 a.m.

At about 6 a.m., police issued a notice on Twitter warning kids walking to school and joggers in the area that a wounded bear may be in the area:

Caution advised Hillside & DeArmoun area wounded brown bear in the area. Concern for children enroute school and joggers/walkers.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is expected to continue the search for the animal Wednesday, Parker said.

Bears facing the long Alaska winter have made news in recent days across the state.

In Kodiak, a brown bear was shot Saturday after raiding a chicken coop.

Also on Saturday, a big black bear in Ketchikan got trapped in the entryway of a house, then “freaked out” and caused some $1,000 in damages. Alaska State Troopers got the bear to leave the home without having to kill it.

Alaska Dispatch

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0: Record breaking drought in BC (Canada) Ver detalle
1: Grass fires cause evacuations in Manitoba (Canada) Ver detalle
2: Rain result in miserable potatoe harvest (Sweden) Ver detalle
3: Heavy rainfall and flooding (Finland) Ver detalle
4: Two months of rain in three days (Finland) Ver detalle
5: Fairbanks gets soaked (Alaska) Ver detalle
6: Northern village cut off by flooding (Sweden) Ver detalle
7: Record snowfall in King Salmon (Alaska) Ver detalle
8: Unusual polar bear numbers (Canada) Ver detalle
9: Conditions result in good whaling season (Alaska) Ver detalle
10: Unusual bear activitiy in Kodiak (Alaska) Ver detalle
11: Kenai Peninsula altered by storms (Alaska) Ver detalle
12: Wounded brown bear on the run (Alaska) Ver detalle